For this project we were tasked to explore materials on a one-to-one scale that will help us investigate and understand the physicality and substance of an imagined interior from our overall projects. It will also help us convey our ideas to a tangible affect. Touch, scent and visuals are all key to how a user experiences an interior environment and after reading ‘The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses’, I understood the significance of it and this project helped emphasise the importance of these roles. It allowed me to see how my previous projects could exist in reality, on our plane.
“A remarkable factor in the experience of enveloping spatiality, interiority and hapticity is the deliberate suppression of sharp focused vision.”
Pallasmaa, 2012
The book talks about how skin, our oldest and most sensitive organ, is our first medium of communication and the importance it plays in interacting with an interior space. The sensory mode is a parent to all other sense including vision which relates back to tactility and the memories of having felt. It also mentions vision is the most noble of the senses and losing it is the ultimate physical loss. We heavily rely on this when designing a space so, as interior designers, vision is a driving sensory mode.
I thought this read related to this project the most. I am interacting with materials and using my sense of touch and vision to create. This inspired me to be aware of this when developing my sculptural object and use it to my advantage.
The object was suggested to contribute to the collecting aspect of the projects. I realised this is an opportunity to explore and hone in on Project 2 Window of Contemplation’s window frame which has built-in pockets to store my client’s air purifying plants.
I knew I wanted to use bamboo for the pocket framed structure as my projects so far especially Project 2 pays homage to Japanese culture and bamboo is widely used for many generations in East Asia as material for furniture and heavily used in construction as scaffolding in areas like Hong Kong.
The frame resemblances that of scaffolding so my next step forward was to explore bamboo tying techniques. It was very interesting to experiment with lashings as these primitive methods go back centuries and it added a sense of rawness to my project. It is versatile so I wanted to incorporate this woody feel all over.
Having not used glue, or drilling into the bamboo, I found an alternative to holding my structure together that ended up not being destructive to my materials. This meant I can possibly re-use these materials in the future and consider their future purpose.
I wanted to include real life air purifying plants into my sculpture to directly convey the function of my material object and how it relates to the collection. I decided to use coir to house the plants, after discovering and investigating many different sustainable pots and containers at the CSM library. I had a look at pulp, mycelium, wheat-bran, moulded fibre and found the most effective was coir for my intended use as it is very strong for outdoors, can withstand getting wet and has great soil properties so I could use it within the collection.
I decided to use rattan and weaving for the pocket base as this is also a traditional technique that used bamboo canes and prominent in Japanese culture. It brings a sense of intricate calmness. Many japanese artists such as Jiro Yonezawa and Shōno Shōunsai have used weaving and interlacing to create rigid sculptures that create the same environment. I would have liked to make my own weave but due to time constraints I sourced a pre-made weaved base from a basket I had already in my home. As I only tied this to the structure and used non-destructive methods, I can recycle this and return it back to its former purpose as a base for my basket. This solution means I am wasting less material and also participating in recycling and sustainability of my project as an artist.
I sourced the bamboo canes and coir from garden centres. Initially I wanted to use a coir pot that is pre-made however they were out of stock. However they had coco liners so I lined this on cardboard to portray the coir pot. I sourced bio-degradable twines from craft shops, and made sure it had enough friction to tie with. I then cut the canes to the proposed sizes, calculating each measurement for the 12 canes.
During trial and error, I found the Japanese square lashing acted better than the square mark II lashing as there was less vertical and horizontal movements and angle of rotation. I also used knitting needles to feed the rope into the weave to tie against the bamboo canes.
Overall I found this project to be very interesting as it was hands on and I had to consider practicality and not just think conceptually. It forced me to consider beyond the designing stage, and look into materials beyond the aesthetics of them. It made me explore the historical uses, composition of the material and how these apply and can play into the interior. I had to consider the language I wanted to convey visually with numerous factors like the stability, texture, colour and form.
Construction process: